Get the Bow-WOW Boho Scoop on Dogs & Their Designers

If you know me or follow this blog, you know about a year and a half ago a Goldendoodle named Millie (that's her on the right, LOL) stole my heart. I call her my “grandpup,” since her mum is my daughter, Erin ((on the left, 'natch).

I’ve always been (and always will be) mostly a cat person. But this puppy pulls at my heartstrings, and it turns out, happily, that she loves me as much as I love her.

It also turns out I’m not alone. Author and interior designer Susanna Salk profiles for us 21 fellow designers and the pooches they pamper in her latest book, At Home with Dogs and Their Designers (that's it in the middle!), and it's a delight even a diehard cat person like me can love.

Designer Carolyn Roehm shares her digs with doggies Lucky, Beethoven, Trollop, Dusty, Baby Monkey, and Teddy Bear

Though Rizzoli released the title this past October, I spent a few months undecided about whether or not to buy it for Erin, who’s become quite the decorating diva since buying her first home just a month before Millie came into her life. And making room for poochie without sacrificing style is an ongoing challenge, though her style (and mine) are nowhere near the high end where these designers and their dogs dwell.

House policy for Hutton Wilkinson's West Highland Terriers, Piper Dundee and Kippy of the Cavendish, is to mess up the house as quickly as possible so dad can redecorate. Not sure which one is picture here, but he seems content with his surroundings as is.

But finally, a few weeks back, I bit the bullet and bought the book for Erin as a Christmas surprise. As soon as it arrived, I started reading it and was tickled to find that even a “mostly cat person” who lives quite casually and modestly in comparison, couldn’t put it down.

Bunny Williams' Terrier and Poodle mix, Bebe, lounges on an Indian quilt meant to protect
the upholstery.

Designers profiled with their dog(s) include such household names (in my house anyway, LOL!) as Jonathan Adler, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Brian McCarthy, Michelle Nussbaumer, Charlotte Moss, Kelly Wearstler, and Bunny Williams, to name just a few. Each profile tells how people and pooches found each other, how they get along in their extreme décor environments, and tips on living the uber-stylish life in tandem.

Martyn Lawrence Bullard and his Wheaten Terrier, Daisy Olympia Green, enjoy tea in
their Moroccan-inspired dining niche.

Some owners tell their dog’s story for them, while others step aside to let the dogs wag the tale. The result is a truly delightful mix of the magic that happens when pets capture our hearts, souls, and of course, take over our homes.

Charlotte Moss and her King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, Buddy, share breakfast in bed, with emphasis on the "bed" part.

Designer Robert Couturier, profiled along with his shih tzus Hercule, Clara, Zazou and Dora, writes a compelling foreward. But it’s champion Hercule who, in that last section, speaks for the rest of the brood and tells the reader favorites—forbidden spots, restaurants and orders, meals at home, places to sleep and walk—as well as pet peeves, most trouble ever gotten into, and special talents.

Brian J. McCarthy's Poodle Mix, Daisy, befriended this Persian lamb Lina chair

once she discovered it wasn't another household pet to compete for affection.

And, of course, there are tons of gorgeous photos inside the private homes of the designers we all love. Thanks go to photographer Stacey Bewkes for the lion’s share of these.

Robert Couturier says his pack of pedigreed shih tzus is welcome anywhere a 

human would be.

Emerging themes? Dogs rule. They are family members and treated with as much give, take and love as any partner or child. Which, I daresay, is as it should be.

Jonathan Adler's Foxy Lady, a mixed breed rescue, enjoys lounging around her designer's home au naturel. Somehow, that seems to me to fit the midcentury modern aesthetic, don't you agree?

My only question is, How long must I wait before At Home with Designers and Their CATS debuts? One thing’s for sure: It’s probably the cats holding up the show, right?

At least that's what Millie told me. Isn't she adorable?

PS: I would have reviewed this book sooner so YOU could order as a holiday gift for the designing dog-lover in your life, but I didn’t want to give away the surprise to Erin and Millie. I only hope that seeing how some pups live doesn't make her too demanding. That decadent dog's life can be addictive.

If you want more (& how could you NOT?!!)…

Windsor Smith and her German Shepherd Sur enjoy a quiet moment alone together in her Santa Monica Hills
(Calif.) home.

• Follow the links below to browse and/or order your very own copy of this book and others by Susanna Salk. 
• Check out the Architectural Digest review of this book. 
• Follow photographer Stacey Bewkes’ design blog, Quintessence and read what she has to say about photographing this fun project. 
• Check out author and designer Susanna Salk's website.
• Shop (and follow!) both my Etsy and ebay stores for vintage finds, a few of my boho DIYs, and next-to-new surplus home decor. New merchandise gets added regularly, so check both places often. 
• Sign up to have BoHo Home posts sent to your inbox using the subscription link in the sidebar (top right). Or follow with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that allows you to set up an account and access all the blogs you want to read in one place. 
• Find additional content from BoHo Home on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Houzz, and give me a follow EVERYWHERE!! The more the merrier at this very merry time of year!

         
         

BHH FACT / Desk + Window = More Creative Work Life

Compass.com via Emily Henderson Styled

I’m going out on a limb here and recommending that EVERY desk should be parked under a window. Rather than a distraction, the view to the world outside helps feed your creativity.

Ideal Home

When I see a desk under a window I think of this passage from a favorite book, Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write:

So you see, the imagination needs moodling—long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering…the dreamy idleness that children have, an idleness when you walk alone for a long, long time, or take a long, dreamy time at dressing, or lie in bed at night and thoughts come and go, or dig in a garden, or drive in a car for many hours alone, or play the piano, or sew, or paint ALONE, or an idleness—and this is what I want you to do—where you sit with pencil and paper or before a typewriter quietly putting down what you happen to be thinking.

Felipe Scheffel photo

Or an idleness where you sit at your desk, pause in your work, and simply gaze out at whatever happens to be there. You will eventually start to notice things beyond when your neighbors come and go, though that can be a story in itself.

David Merewether photo / Wealden Times

Here are just a few of the amazing things I’ve witnessed gazing out the window over my desk:

• The couple across the street arguing—I could see the red in her face as she got in the car, slammed the door and screeched the tires down the street while the husband stood, bewildered in the driveway.
• The underbelly of a preying mantis as it hung from my screen.
• The removal of a tree from my neighbor’s yard, section by section, like dismantling a life.
• A squirrel digging up food he remembered burying in a very specific place in my yard.
• The habits of birds at the feeder—nuthatches walking down the tree, woodpeckers digging out bugs, finches gossiping, cardinals picking out the safflower seeds.
• A hawk approaching, the birds hiding in a bush, the hawk diving into the bush—mayhem!
• A stealthy squirrel outwitting another predatory hawk.
• A tiny turtle crossing my sidewalk and disappearing into my flowerbed
• A frightened raccoon in a storm, taking shelter in my bushes.
• A female cardinal who bloodied her beak, determined to scare off the interloper she perceived in the window reflection.
• A deer resting under my plum tree, then loping off down the middle of my suburban street.

Via Barney Frank

More from Ueland:

I tell you and reassure you: at such times you are being slowly filled and re-charged with warm imagination, with wonderful, living thoughts…What you write today is the result of some span of idling yesterday, some fairly long period of protection from talking and busyness.

GR-Bolig

Inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.

Paul Costello photo

I learned that you should feel, when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountaintop, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten—happy, absorbed, and quietly putting one bead on after another.

Via Anna Gillar

This may be the setting I find ideal...

Nicole LaMotte photo

...windows with views to AT LEAST two planes.

Via Habitually Chic

And remember, that means UP, too. One of the nicest days in memory was spent in a friend’s work area on an enclosed solarium porch with a view to the sky above. We may not all be that lucky…

Via Mad About the House

…but even brick walls have secrets to reveal.

Manuel Rodriguez photo

So the next time you position a desk, go for right under the window.

Design Dump

It doesn’t matter if the space you have is a little…

The Everygirl

…or a lot.

Ultralinx

The window is where you want to work.

And moodle, of course.

Build in, if you prefer.

Via Desk Layout Ideas

Even add shelves.

Via Beautiful Things That Make Me Happy

Just keep the desk under the window.

It’s okay to share the view, too…

…as long as it doesn't interfere with individual moodling.

Hudson Valley Lighting

You won’t be sorry.

If you want more (& you should because there’s always more that wants YOU)…

• Check out the (affiliate) links below to get books by Brenda Ueland and books on the power of solitude, imagination and daydreaming.
• Shop (and follow!) my Etsy store, BoHo Home By Susan, for vintage finds and a few of my boho DIYs. I have vintage and home décor items for sale on ebay too! New merchandise gets added daily, so check both places often. 
• Sign up to have BoHo Home posts sent to your inbox using the subscription link in the sidebar (top right). Or follow with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that allows you to set up an account and access all the blogs you want to read in one place. 
• Find additional content from BoHo Home on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Houzz, and give me a follow EVERYWHERE!! The more the merrier!

     

            

How life is better with these 4 interior design magazines

BoHo Home

If I had my ‘druthers, I’d be sitting in that twig chair, sipping an iced coffee and reading interior design and decoration magazines. But not just ANY interior design magazines. Make it one of my four favorites, and add a fudge drizzle to the coffee, K?

After scouting multiple issues of a dozen or so home and garden magazines picked up at the bookstore or grocery checkout, I eventually fell in love with these four. Here’s a quick-and-dirty peek into my favorites and why I subscribe to each one.

1. HGTV Magazine

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Interestingly, this is the LAST magazine added to my subscription list, but it has become my #1 favorite. Partially, I think it's because we don't have expanded cable (we're Roku streaming buffs), and the only time I get to watch HGTV is in the dentist's office. Haha!

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So when the print version—which, in all honesty, is completely different from the TV network—arrives, I drop what I’m doing and flip to the tours at the back. This issue, the magazine featuries the home of one of my favorite bloggers, Lindsay of White Buffalo Styling Co., which I told you about in a previous post. 

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HGTV Mag tours are my favorites because of their scale. Occasionally a home may belong to a celebrity (HGTV host, probably) or is professionally decorated (more likely owned by a decorator or stylist), but most are not. Generally they’re small- to average-sized homes lived in by people more like me, whose hobby is playing around with how their home looks and functions.

In the case of the White Buffalo team—blogger Lindsay and husband Chris—the couple buys fixer-uppers on the small side, renovates, decorates, sells, and buys another. If you give the blog a gander, they’ve sold the hold pictured here and are just beginning a new reno.

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And if great, down-to-earth tours aren’t enough for you, each and every one comes with a “now get the look” feature, complete with sources and prices.

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I also love the magazine because every issue SHOUTS color...

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…and FUN! My two favorite things!! And they never leave you wondering what paint color has been used. But in case you miss it on the page where it first appears…

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…there’s always a handy chart at the back of EVERY. Blessed. Paint. Color. In. EVERY. Blessed. Issue.

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I always enjoy the recurring features, too.

2. AD (Architectural Digest)

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Talk about going from A to Z! (Or should that be A to D?) Where HGTV Magazine is down-to-earth, AD is out of this world. It’s also a magazine I didn’t subscribe to at first. I thought it was probably too high-end for me, but I was wrong.

We all can dream and should. Am I right? You bet I am!

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There’s a WEALTH of information in AD that is a joy to read. For instance, features on designers who created legendary products…

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…as well as new designs and emerging trends.

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And the tours are TO. DIE. FOR.

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Though out of my league and always professional designed and styled, what better way to learn about great design than to study it, month after month after month after month?

Each issue of AD is chock FULL of ideas, and if you overlook one or two (it’s easy to get distracted with all that gorgeousness going on), you’ll eventually get reminded of it if you sign up for online access that comes FREE with your subscription. AD clearly has the best online content, which includes current articles, information and photos from its archives, and new material, just for online subscribers.

3. House Beautiful

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HB tours are terrific, too. 

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Again, the scale here is greater than HGTV, and the spaces are always professionally designed.

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But the ideas HB keeps pitching at you are always adaptable to a different scale. And you can learn so much from reading the interviews with the designers! 

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The magazine also has great recurring features that scope out trends and favorites, as well as color. A particular color is featured each issue. This time it’s “Matcha Green,” as in tea, pictured bottom right. 

And there’s always a “Name This Color” feature, which, I have to admit, I have entered once or twice (but never won). I’ve always thought naming colors would be the ultimate dream job, so this gives me a chance to live the dream, right?

4. Elle Décor

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Elle Décor has a lot in common with its sister publication House Beautiful format-wise, but it’s a tad more erudite. I don’t say that because I’m into the whole nose-in-the-air thing OR making fun of it. It just is what it is, with in-depth features about art, artists, and art history, as well as interior design and sometimes fashion, and how all kinds of design connect.

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Like my other faves, ED’s tours are always stellar. Homes featured are always professionally designed and styled, but, like with AD and HB, reading about the process and studying the pictures make for great lessons and scaled-down ideas for my own home.

BoHo Home

Recurring features include a hefty dose of trend reporting—what’s in the offing, as well as what’s hot right now and where to find it.

BoHo Home

But my absolute favorite part of ED (because I’m a pattern nerd) is the “Endpaper” feature, which includes a pattern taken from fabric, wallpaper or art.

Yes, if asked, I’d have to say HGTV and AD are my two favorites, BUT…

BoHo Home

House Beautiful and Elle Décor were the first interior design magazines I subscribed to, and I still wouldn’t want to be without them. You see, I subscribe not only to get ideas for my own home, but also ideas to write about for this blog. 

So the more magazines the better, right? Well, kinda sorta. The name of this blog is BoHo Home after all, so publications like Country Living and Traditional Home usually don’t have material that interests me and that I want to share with my readers. But I have subscribed to both at one time or another. 

Others I’ve looked into are Veranda (too prissy), Coastal Living (too beachy), and Better Homes & Gardens. BHG I miss, sometimes, so maybe one day, in a weak moment, I’ll add it back. But I can only read so much, you know, and four magazines, along with the 90 or so blogs I scan daily, keeps me plenty busy.

BoHo Home

Gotta save time for relaxing on the porch and doing nothing, at least while the weather cooperates, and you should, too!

In the meantime, if you want more… 

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• Subscribe to one or more of my favorite magazines by clicking on the (affiliate) links below. I’ve found Amazon to have the best magazine prices around, and auto-renewal is a breeze. 
• Shop (and follow!) my new Etsy store, BoHo Home By Susan, for vintage finds and a few of my boho DIYs. I have home décor items for sale on eBay too! New merchandise gets added daily, so check both places often. You might even want to make it easy on yourself and give me a follow in each spot, K? 
• And by all means, don't miss a day of BoHo Home. Sign up to have posts sent to your inbox using the subscription link in the sidebar (top right). Or follow with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that allows you to set up an account and access all the blogs you want to read in one place. 
• Find additional content from BoHo Home on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Houzz, and give me a follow EVERYWHERE!! The more the merrier!